Alicia Keys's Genre:

Contemporary R&B, R&B, Adult Contemporary R&B, Neo-Soul

Biography

By mixing R&B with a sultry dose of neo-soul, Alicia Keys became an international star in 2001 with the release of her debut album. Songs in A Minor sold more than 50,000 copies during its first day of availability and eventually moved over ten million units worldwide, thus setting the stage for the 20-year-old's long career. Although she shared the charts with R&B contemporaries like Destiny's Child, Keys' talent distinguished her as a different sort of diva, one who played a variety of instruments and penned the majority of her songs without outside help. The Diary of Alicia Keys cemented her popularity two years later, and Alicia Keys spent the rest of the decade refining her now-signature sound. Alicia Augello Cook was born in Harlem in early 1981. Raised by her Italian-American mother, she enrolled in classical piano lessons at the age of seven and began writing songs four years later. An education at the Professional Performance Arts School helped develop her vocal skills, and Alicia graduated at the age of 16 as the class valedictorian. Two Columbias loomed on the immediate horizon: Columbia University and Columbia Records, both of whom had extended offers to the talented student/musician. Although she attempted to make both options work, Alicia found it difficult to juggle the two commitments and chose to focus exclusively on her music career. Assuming the stage name of Alicia Keys, she began working with Columbia and contributed a song to the Men in Black soundtrack, but disputes with the label resulted in her contract's termination.Keys bounced back by aligning herself with Clive Davis, the president of Arista Records, but work on her debut album stalled when Davis was ousted from the company in 2000. Davis soon formed his own label, J Records, and welcomed Keys back into the fold with an aggressive publicity campaign (including an influential appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show). Songs in A Minor was then released in June 2001 and debuted at the top of the charts, eventually netting five Grammys and rising to platinum status in ten different countries. Released in 2003, The Diary of Alicia Keys enjoyed similar Grammy-certified success, and Keys released a book of poetry the following year. A live CD/DVD package, Unplugged, arrived in 2005 and followed Keys' two previous releases to the top of the charts, even if it failed to win any of the four Grammys for which it was nominated. She then entered the acting world, starring in both Smokin' Aces and The Nanny Diaries in 2007, before issuing the pop-influenced As I Am later that year. It became her fourth consecutive number one album, and she was nominated for another handful of Grammys as a result, with "Superwoman" winning the award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance in early 2009. As the year drew to a close, Keys returned to the top of the Billboard charts with "Empire State of Mind," a Jay-Z single that featured her vocals, and released her fourth studio album, The Element of Freedom. Although it went platinum, The Element of Freedom didn't reach number one in the U.S., becoming her first album to miss the top slot. It did reach number one in the U.K., though, marking Keys' first chart-topping album in Europe and highlighting her status as a global artist. During the next two years, Keys married producer Swizz Beatz, gave birth to a son, collaborated with Eve on the single "Speechless," appeared somewhere in Kanye West's "All of the Lights," and went on a brief tour in celebration of her debut album's tenth anniversary. She wrote and, with her husband, co-produced "Angel" for Jennifer Hudson's I Remember Me. In 2012, she assisted Emeli Sandé (Our Version of Events) and Miguel (Kaleidoscope Dream) prior to releasing Girl on Fire, her fifth studio album. It was issued on RCA -- in the wake of J Records' dissolution -- that November and featured collaborations with her husband, as well as Sandé, Salaam Remi, Jeff Bhasker, Frank Ocean, and John Legend. In the U.S., it became her fifth number one album and went gold. VH1 Storytellers, recorded just prior to its release, was issued in June 2013. ~ Andrew Leahey & Andy Kellman

AOL Radio Stations Alicia Keys is Featured on (10)

Game of Thrones is finally back, and in honor of this life-altering event, this edition of the Slacker 20 features songs that perfectly represent key characters in the series. You’ll hear tracks for Tyrion, Arya, Daenerys, Joffrey and more…and just wait until you hear what we picked for poor Theon “Reek” Greyjoy.

To celebrate the release of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, we’ve assembled 20 songs about the mega-hit book & movie series. You’ll hear songs from the score, the soundtracks, and a couple of picks that are inspired by the characters. May the odds be ever in your favor!

The Voice is back with new coaches, new mentors, and a ton of new contestants singing their hearts out and trying to turn chairs around. In this edition of the Slacker 20, we’re featuring 20 songs from the winners, the past cast, and the new members of the Voice team, Gwen Stefani, Pharrell Williams and Taylor Swift.

Beyoncé has won 17 Grammys and has sold over 118 million albums as a solo artist in addition to the 60 million albums she sold with Destiny’s Child. On this installment of our DNA series, we will explore the music that inspired her, her collaborations, friends, family, biggest hits, and growing legacy.

From his beginnings in LA alt-rock band Kara’s Flowers when he was only in high school, to his blue-eyed soul breakthrough with Maroon 5, Adam Levine is more than just Blake Shelton’s comedic foil on The Voice, or People Magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive.” He’s a songwriter, mentor, actor and producer. Your Slacker curators have put together a station that includes his biggest hits, collaborations, early work, influences, and friends. This is “Adam Levine: DNA.”

Dim the lights and enjoy the most romantic artists of all time, from Marvin Gaye and Barry White to Maxwell and Alicia Keys. Your very own "quiet storm" is right here on Slow Jamz...so chill the champagne and groove!

Nine-time Grammy winner John Legend is one of the most soulful and charismatic artists in modern music. His "All Of Me" is one of the biggest hits of the year, and his current "All Of Me Tour" is treating audiences to an intimate, uplifting evening of his hits over a decade. We sat down with John Legend to create a radio station featuring his favorite artists, stories, and songs. From Stevie Wonder to the Beatles to Arcade Fire, this is an exclusive look into Mr. John Legend's musical DNA: It's "I Am The DJ" on Slacker.

Artists Related to Alicia Keys (10)

Best known for her role as Effie White in the 2006 film version of the Broadway musical Dreamgirls, vocalist/actress Jennifer Hudson was first brought to the public's attention while a contestant on the third season of American Idol.

Kelly Rowland rose to fame with the success of Destiny's Child during the late '90s. During that time, Destiny's Child catapulted into the new millennium as one of the best-selling female musical groups in history.

Jamie Foxx leveraged his major credentials as a star on television (In Living Color, The Jamie Foxx Show) and on the big screen (Any Given Sunday, Collateral, Ray, Django Unchained) into million-selling, Grammy-winning status as a contemporary R&B singer and songwriter.

Before she could utilize her talents for her own solo endeavors, R&B singer, vocal arranger, and songwriter Keri Hilson wrote a slew of songs, many of them chart-toppers, for several popular artists in the mid-2000s as part of the five-person production/songwriting team known as the Clutch.